Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 January 1942 — Page 10

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PAGE 10 The Indianapolis Times

RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE Editor Business Manager (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD President

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< RILEY 3581

Ownad and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co, 214 W. Maryland St

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Cireulations.

Give Lisht and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1042

WANTED: A SCORCHED-EARTH POLICY

TH Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13.—Something is cooking in the Senate Judiciary Committee and, judged by the smell, it's something that ain’t quite fresh. Senators Ellender and Overton of Louisiana are trying to put over as Federal District Attorney in New Orleans another member of their low political mob. He ig Herbert Christenberry and, if confirmed, he would be in a position to ease up or bear down on still other members of the old Huey Long gang in the prosecution of indictments pending and the investigation and punishment of much other unfinished crooked business,

Overton was elected by a fraud perpetrated by the mob but insists that he was so dumb that he didn’t

HE worst news from the Far Pacific is not that we are losing the Philippines, that two-thirds of Malaya is gone | and Singapore gravely threatened, that Saraway has been | taken and the Dutch East Indies invaded at four points. It is not even that the Allies have lost bases, ships and | planes, Much more disturbing are reports that the British are | allowing large quantities of raw materials to fall into the | hands of the Japanese in Malaya. According to American correspondents, the enemy has taken virtually intact not only radio, naval and military stations, but also supplies of tin and rubber. We hope these reports are exaggerated, that they ap- | ply only to small areas under the correspondents’ observa- ! tion and not to the two-thirds of Malava already captured.

= 5 »

= = = HE serious implications are obvious. It is bad enough the United States, which most of that raw rubber and tin—to be deprived of | those materials so essential to war production. But that | is the fortune of war to which we must be reconciled, since | we and our allies were so grossly unprepared in the Far | East. It iz not the fortune of war, however, if those life-and-death resources are simply left for the Japanese to use. | That would not be bad luck or defeat in a battle; it would be giving direct aid to the enemy of the very kind he needs most. It would be criminal. The lives of unnumbered Allied forces and civilians would depend upon it, the entire outcome of the war would be influenced by it. The best hope of eventually defeating Japan, now that she has gained and the Allies lost so many bases, is her savere shortage of raw materials. Time fights for us as long as we keep her short. Rut if she gets the rubber, tin and oil of the Indies, as well as the bases, she will be almost invulnerable.

for the Allies—particularh

> = = 5

HERE is only one way to prevent that. It is by destruction of every base, every storag= center, every tin mine, every oil well, before retreat. The British should best know the stakes. They know what happened to those French who were too propertyminded to destroy their bridges, roads and crops. Ther know that the hungry and cold Nazi army would not be retreating today had not the Russians left only a land of desolation and waste to the invaders. A scorched-earth policy, ruthlessly complete, must be carried out by the retreating Allied forces in Malaya and elsewhere, Anything lesz would be betrayal.

COPYCATS DON'T WIN

E was born on a farm but he didn't like farming. liked mechanics. This being a free country, he started

with a screw driver made from a knitting needle and a pair | | of tweezers fashioned from an old watch spring. A half | {

century later he turned out car number 15 million. He had applied this principle: All that is necessary iz to get the first unit right. The rest follow very quickly and easily, He repeats that now, about the stupendous program of war production laid out by President Roosevelt: “If | we can make one tank or one plane we can make thousands of them.” We recommend in this grim and dismal time that you dust off the encyclopedia and re-read, as we did, the story of Henry Ford. It's a great antidote for gloom. Remember that it was Ford and his kind in this nation of inventive geniuses that made mass production work. And that the ones we are fighting are not the creators but the imitators; that about the only thing Japan, for example, | ever invented was the silkworm,

| ties: “Don’t buy liguor—buy United States Bonds.”

We don't want to seem Pollvannish. We know things probably will get worse before ther get better, But as for the final result in this war where mechanics dominate— | well, re-read the life of Henry Ford, or Kettering or Edison. And bear in mind and sustain vour faith in the fact that | no copy was ever as good as the original. Or to put it another way, did you ever use a Japanese | light bulb?

HONORING BILLY MITCHELL

HE posthumous promotion of Rilly Mitchell to the rank of major general, as provided in a bill just passed by the Senate, is at once belated and very timely, Related, of eourse, because Billy Mitchell ig long since dead. Timely, because recent events have substantiated his argument that in the wars of the future airpower would be paramount—an argument he pushed with such persistence and vehemence that he was drummed out of the Army for “conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the military service, If Billy Mitchell's views had prevailed at the time he | was uttering them, if this country had given its Army and | Navy flying officers a real chance to develop airpower ae he so plainly saw it could be developed, the war situation | today might have quite a different face on it.

But his counsel was ignored, and we are now paying in blood and sweat and tears the price of that mistake. We hope the bill to give Billy Mitchell his two stars is enacted. But we suspect that he would take much greater satisfaction from the vastness of the new aircraft produe- | tion program, and from the other evidences that brass-hat reluctance to strike the shackles from airpower is being

| Jess, as senators they have the right to select the

| ing their own kind, to sit on the Federal bench and | handle grand juries and prosecutions.

! young men got such a robust tossing around that you

| ators affect when they think they have a sucker at

‘This and That

He | |

| uses half a ton of rubber, while a tank uses a ton. | ... Russian dandelion is suggested as another source

| tion of veterans and civilians injured in this war... . | in Celifornia, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and

| 981 out of every 1000 bank depositors. . i seven states have frozen the unemployment compen-

| ing attack rate of syphilis and gonorrhea will be | swiftly reversed, unless we pay specific attention to

a Mohammedan

know the fraud was operating. Ellender was Huey's ves-man when he served as speaker of the lower House of the legislature. They are typical Long politicians and it would be a Tweedle-Dum judgment to say that either is worse than the other. Neverthe-

sort of politicians they inevitably would select, mean-

Our August Senators

CHRISTENBERRY'S NOMINATION was sent to a sub-committee of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a delegation of young Louisiana citizens came up to present objections to his confirmation. These

might have thought they were the defendants in a case of murder by criminal assault. The subcommittee was composed of Senators O'Mahoney of Wyoming and McFarland of Arizona, Democrats, and Austin of Vermont, Republican. They heckled, nagged. shook fingers, raised their voices and, just generally, carried on in the traditional bulldozing county-attorney manner which sen-

and nobody is looking. They didn't try what could be termed the people's side of the case but rather counter-attacked the petitioning citizens to the benefit of the notorious Louisiana mob so many of whose bosses, all political associates of Ellender, Overton and Christenberry, were caught in spectacular looting. A Federal employee who would be fired if identified confided after the morning session that never in his long experience has he seen a petitioning citizen so set upon by a congressional body.

The Reason for the Heckling

BY AFTERNOON, however, word seemed to have got around that the hearing was being watched and vou should have seen the change. The august statesmen of the subcommittee were almost half-civil by

their mercy to draw out

E INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

{

TUESDAY, JAN. 13, 1942

Cold Comfort!

(00L=

ALL SAME MAKE IT PLENTY MOT IN {

The Hoosier Forum

I wholly disagree with what yon say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

“WAGES GREATEST FACTOR IN PRODUCTION COSTS”

By James R. Meitzler, Attica

(Times readers are invited their

these columns, religious con:

to express views in

the time the show closed for the day and they may be on a spot themselves by now for the inquiry is generating heat and the protesting group, respectfully but doggedly are asking that Justice Frank Murphy of the Supreme Court be invited to tell what he learned about Christenberry which, of course, is plenty, when he was Attorney General i And why shouldn't Murphy tell what he knows? | Who has a greater duty to guard the sancity and | purity of the court system? The reason for the heckling is no mystery. If senators permit citizens to fault selections of brother senators, the brother senators can get dirty and retaliate in turn, Nor is there any guarantee that the official record will show the bulldozing for senators have a right to strike out matter revealing their prejudice and no notes could record the harassing voice of the intimidating shake of the senatorial finger

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13- Washington will publish the names of people awarded certificates to buy new tires. . . . A troupe of elephants which played Washington in the first World War have been booked for a return engagement. . « » More than 83000 U S. farms reported to Census Bureau they produced nothing for sale in 1939 —just enough for the occupants to live on. . . . An average plane

the Wage-Hour law, but no ceiling |

| production costs and any advance a+ tHE POLITICIANS

Labor has a floor under wages, Make

your letters short, so all can

troversies excluded.

above. For extra work above 40 hours, labor receives wages in-| creased one-half or doubled. In 1940 the Department of Commerce reported labor got 634 per cent of the national income. With labor of living, and everything the people taking two-thirds of the national buy. Limit all or none. income it is plainly evident that] ¥ 4 # wages are the greatest factor in TAKING A BLAM

have a chance. letters must

be signed.)

in wages must certainly apgment

the cost of living and war effort. Br W. H. Edwards, Spencer

In The Times Forum (Jan. 7) Dabor has claimed enlarged cost; car Douglas mixes a few selfof lMving and war production Was|,......i truths with some quescaused by excessive profits enacted i; nie conclusions and then asks by TY a to have flaws picked in the whole. wages, | crertifne and is entitled by labors | His assertion that takes on big

_| corporations are counted as part Wh law to 50 or 100 per cent in {of their operating expenses and crease in profits for the extra busi-| the t ods sold is al BiG in Jack, the intreased) ihe tax enstied on goods sold is al eas } ’ |too apparent for questioning; for rofite of corporations, when passed | P pre to the stockholders are ; ab- | there is an old axiom that “Busisorbed by the income tax and the st seeive ay rig Bn PE aq they| Of distribution, charges taxes onto

lose money that los is their own. [se price of retail sales; business {acting as the tax collecting agency.

The farmer also is blamed for ris-| i ing living costs though he is prac-| Mt. Douglas’ conclusion that Government confiscate all large

tically helpless in setting a price) i i on his products. He is asked to| industries” sounds good in theory, produce more but instead of extra but is dreadfully deficient when pay for overtime he is asked to take| considered from a practical standa cut. Price is the farmers’ wage Point. and parity means an equal wage| With government, national or with labor and industry. There is/State, in control of business ena demand subsidies be dropped, al-|terprises we would witness 10 times though subsidies are paid only on more the playing of party polities those basic crops whose price has|than we have been witnessing in

ness pavs no tax.” Business, from manufacturer, through all channels

of rubber. . . , The liver of a Brazilian fish, the cacao, has been found to contain as many vitdmins as the liver of the cod. . . . Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are busiest days for out-of-town business men in Washington on war jobs. . . . Hotel registrations drop 20 to 30 per cent on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, pick up again Sunday night. . . . Hotel men advise you to plan your trip to the capifal accordingly. . . . Bureau of Standards is doing research on store teeth made out of plastics. . . . Defense elevator manufacturers have been given higher priorities.

"No Liquer—Bonds" A WASHINGTON bottled goods shoppe adver- . .. Plans are already being made for the rehabilita-

Are kyanite, andalusite and dumortierite in your vocabulaty? Theyre heat resisting substances mined Nevada. . . . Federal deposit insurance now protects . + Thirty-

always been, and &till is, below par- past years, So long as our Conity. For example the Department gress and our State legislatures of Agriculture stated on Dee, 15 keep plaving party partisanship wheat parity price $127 on the against the people's welfare we dare farm, Actually it was $1.11. But! not trust large or even small busi« at threshing time it was below 90! ness concerns in political hands. cents at the start, rose to 96 cents, We saw our ‘last Indiana legisdropped back to 8 cents and then lature spend more than $100,000 in came back to $101. A lot of farm- a struggle over the political gravy ers got less than $1. bowl; and we have, unfortunately, Wages for the farmer and (n- Witnessed Congress play party polidustry are the difference between|tics with our national safety, with cost of production and selling price. the result that thousands, possibly The farmer is perfectly willing his tens of thousands, of our young wages should be limited by placing men's lives will be sacrificed to a ceiling on the price of his prod- preserve the freedom so dearly uets, provided a ceiling is also bought for us on the battlefields placed on wages, the largest item of the Revolution. in the cost of production, the cost When politicians forsake party

Side Glances=By Galbraith

sation credits of workers in the armed services. . . .

of the war to the highest level since 1929

Cheese union will make “symbolic” shipments to the United States, though trade between this country and Switzerland is restricted by war,

So They Say—

The primary aim of peace should be that the nations of the world will no longer tolerate war. — Carrie Chapman Catt, women's leader.

* - +

The good work begun will be canceled, the declin-

the protection of our men in the armed forces—Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president, American Social Hygiene Association. *

Our first duty is to make war, to give whatever our country shell find it necessary to ask of us.—Clarence B. Kelland, story writer. . * Whatever else goes out of commission during the war, it will not be the Church of Christ—Dr. James Thayer Addison, National Council, Episcopal Church. . . *

Japanese broadcasts invariably describe Hitler as

ideals and adopt the ideal of unselfish service to the general welfare of the nation as a whole, then will be time enough to think of placing government in control of business. Meantime, it will continue to be the one-third of the people who have been and are yet ill-fed, illhoused and ill-clothed that will pay the greatest taxes, for they will pay where it hurts the worst, and with extremely low incomes with which to pay. ” o ” ‘LET US PROFIT BY EXAMPLE OF FRANCE By Edward F. Maddox, 959 W. 28th St. One of the greatest weaknesses of the United States, France, England and several others countries, now fighting for their lives, or crushed beneath the iron heel of totalitarian brutality, is the weak, dangerous and often fatal fallacy of granting free speech, press and the right to organize in open enemy, subversive groups and spread subversive propaganda among the people, 90 per cent of whom do not recognize nor understand the real motive behind the fifth columnists. : France was one of the most tolerant and most badly infested with all sorts of ism organizations. She was the great exponent and example of political confusion and she fell with a crash at the first shock from her own internal confusion and weaknesses caused by nursing and coddling a nest of vipers in her bosom. Let us profit by her example! When morale, confidence and unity are essential to victory such proposals as that made in the Hoosier Forum by Jasper Douglas, designed as it is to oreate confusion, suspicion and demoralize our defense effort, is a totalitarian dagger drawn to stab us in the back and destroy our liberties, while we fight the same evil forces abroad. Let us tighten up one the home front. . . . From now on, subversive propaganda should be quietly and consistently dropped in the waste basket. That will help win the war. ¥ ¥ 8 WANTS ALL PUT TO WORK IN DEFENSE EFFORT By L. A. Indianapolis

If the unemployed people of this city and throughout the U. 8. were taken off the relief rolls and social security, and instead were trained or retained by a city, state or Federal agency for needed defense jobs, I believe the U. 8. would increase production to another 20 to 30 pew cent. If it is possible, old factories or lofts should be immediately taken over and turned into manufacturing or sssembly work of a defense type. It can be done! No patriotic and loyal American should be idle today! Production, everybody work ing, all for the good of our country, will win in the long run.

YOUTH

The glory of the sunset and the night Adorned our kingly castles and our halls, And as we dreamed we heard with grave delight The homage of the waves heneath our walls, When the end came or how we do not know; Others are wearing scarlet that was ours, And in our castles others come and

go Dreaming our dreams and watching from our towers. Preston Clark (1893-)

DAILY THOUGHT

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12,

Gen. Johnson Says—

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13.—Some days ago this column asked in a faint inquiring voice about what is going to happen to the rubber plantations of Malaya and the Indies if the Japs extend their push. The tin mines can be put out of commission for a few months. The oil wells can be rendered useless, it is said, for a year. If the Japs have modern drilling and finishing equipment, I doubt if the wells can be put out for so long,

But rubber is different. It takes six years for the trees to bear-—at least for the present methods of manufacture. The area under threat or attack produces more than 95 per cent of all the crude rubber in the world. My point was that if the Japs prevail and these plantations are not destroyed, they and the Nazis will have all the rubber there is. The column conjectured that in view of the fact that these properties are controlled by very rich and powerful British, Dutch and American private interests their destruction may be successfully opposed by our own friends and allies. My conclusion from all this is that we should be exerting every effort re= gardless of cost to replace Malayan rubber by the products of our own ingenuity and that we were not doing that,

We Must Find a Substitute

Since then there have been several discussions in the press about how awful it would be to deprive the whole world of rubber for years to gain a temporary war advantage and a rather cavalier dismissal of any suggested substitute by saying “it can't be done.”

Taking the first point first; suppose the Japs do occupy these areas and we have not destroyed the rubber. Suppose then we recapture them (as we are assured that we shall) what are the retreating Japs going to do about those trees? Will they feel our squeamishness ahout not destroying them on the ground that it would deprive the innocent world of rubber for a number of years? Horsefeathers!

If those plantations are lost by us to our enemies intact and then again threatened by us, they will be lost to the world alike whether we do the destroying or they do it. It is hard to approach the problem from any angle without arriving at a conclusion that we must find, among our many promising scientific products, some substitute for rubber,

It's Time for a Decision

IT IS NOT enough to say: “It can't be done. During the World War there was a universal slogan: “It can't be done, but here it is.” It would be good to revive that now. Rubber production was moved from its native place, Brazil, for one reason only. It was that, like the production of flax, it requires a very large amount of hand labor. Nowhere in America was there such a supply of coolie labor—efficient labor—working for a few cents a day such as exists on the other half of the globe. If there is any capitalist objection to moving the production of rubber back Again to the Americas, it will be on this score. It may not be so advanced ‘in words but that will be the real reason. The situation is acute and there is no time for thumb-twiddling. Let us know, and know now, what is going to be done about the rubber trees,

Editor's Note: The views expressed by columnists in this newspaper are their own, They are not necessarily those of The Indianapolis Times,

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

THE FEMININE world Is stirred by the uniforth question, Some folks want ‘em, some don't, Mr.® LaGuardia, we hear, favors the snappy, expensive sort. Mrs, Roosevelt inclines towards a cheape er, less gaudy model. The soldier boys, being polled, seem confused, but at this writing it looks like we'll be wearing brass buttons before spring. And in my opinion-—-which, by the way, is none too good on military matters—the thing will be a flop and a waste. Let's consider, first,

| the peculiar nature of women in their attitude to-

‘ward clothes. Did you ever meet one who was happy in the same style she wore six months before? Cer tainly not in the U. 8. A,, for our women are condi tioned to quick fashion changes. They dote on variety, Their very morale would be imperiled by orders to stick to one model for the duration, Next, take the soldiers. No matter what they may say now, in their burst of patriotic fervor, they want their women to look like women, especially dur« ing a war, When boys put on uniforms their maleness is accentuated; they feel strong and masculine and, being always attracted to their opposites, prefer their girls to look soft and frilly, The manlier men become, the sharper is their desire for womenly women-—or 1 don't know my psychology,

An Unhappy Prospect

THERE'S STILL another factor to be considered before the matter can be settled-—public sensibilities, And, folks, I leave it to you: What good will come of regimenting feminine fashions so that women of every age and every architectural mould will have to wear the same cut of dress? Let your imagination loose. Uniforms are become ing to girls with a Betty Grable figure, but if we make this thing general it will mean that women of grande plano proportions, as well as the bean-pole types, must appear in snug-fitting, straight-up-and-down garments. The result would be awful. Besides, we've done pretty good work in other lines without such regi mentation, and I'm so high on my sex I think we can help win a war without going into uniforms,

Questions and Answers

(The Indianapolis Times Service Bureau will answer any question of facet or information, not involving extensive ree search, Write your question clearly, sign name and address, fnelose a three-cent postage stamp, Medical or legal advice cannot be given, Address The Times Washington Servies Bureau. 1018 Thirteenth S8t.. Washington. D, 0.)

Q-—-What causes the recoil of a gun? A~Tt results from the resistance offered by both the gun and the bullet to the expanding gases generated by the ignition of the powder. It begins the instant the powder is ignited, and ends when the bullet leaves the muzzle, thereby releasing the gases and consequently the resistance to expansion, Newton's Third Law of Motion, “To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” covers gun re. coll. Whenever a body acquires momentum some other body acquires an equal and opposite momentum. In a gun, the expanding gases impart motion to the bullet and an equal and opposite motion to the gun. The latter is the recoil.

Q-—-What are the nationalities of Willlam Green and John L. Lewis, A—Mr, Green was born in Coshocton, O.; his

who is a direct descendant of the

. a

father was an English miner, and hip mother a